Interns can't occupy chairs: Karnataka High Court asks for solution to overcrowding concerns

Courtroom 14 of the Karnataka High Court on Friday saw an exchange between the Bench and the Bar on persisting concerns about overcrowding in the courtroom.

Justice M Nagaprasanna asked advocates to suggest solutions to tackle the problem, after concerns were raised that lawyers often find it difficult to move and find seating because of overcrowding, particularly in the latter half of the workday.

Senior Advocate KN Phanindra flagged the lack of space and chairs to accommodate such a crowd and observed that measures were needed to prevent such overcrowding.

"How? All of you give me a solution, I'll implement it," replied Justice Nagaprasanna.

He went on to assure,

"I am not taking it as a complaint, even I want to solve this problem… We’ll discuss with the court officer and do something."

Concerns were also raised about interns who refuse to give up their seats to lawyers in court.

"What should I do with interns? Ask them not to come. They can't occupy the chairs," Justice Nagaprasanna remarked.

Phanindra added,

"I had to request interns to get up and give me the chair. They are not taught this basic thing in college, but they are sent to intern to the court, unfortunately," he remarked.

Among other measures, Phanindra also suggested that the Court have only one causelist with all listed cases being called out continuously and predictably, one after the other, instead of going back and forth between multiple causelists.

Justice Nagaprasanna pointed out that it was necessary to have multiple causelists since many have demanded that fresh matters be taken up on a daily basis. Fresh matters would be separately listed from older matters.

The judge also pointed out that hundreds of memos were moved in the mornings seeking urgent hearings, even before the Court called out items listed in the causelist.

Phanindra went on to observe that courts get particularly crowded after the lunch break, when litigants and others sit in to see if their case would reach. He pointed out that they do not make way even for lawyers.

"Advocates can't even find a seat here. To come in is a problem, to go out...Parties say they have come here for settlement," he said.

Justice Nagaprasanna suggested,

"We will do one thing. None of the settlement parties will come in before 4 o'clock. That we can do. Whoever has settlement, we will get the policemen and tell them that none of the parties who come in for settlement will step inside the Court Hall till 4 o'clock. So 25 per cent of the crowd, gone," he noted.

Additional Solicitor General Arvind Kamath added that lawyers whose matters are scheduled later in the day occupy seats in the court hall early, to see if their case is called out earlier. Kamath suggested that a separation in the list be provided to distinguish between morning and afternoon matters.

Justice Nagaprasanna expressed reservations over whether the suggestion was practical.

"(Senior counsel KN Phanindra) said, take one (cause)list, if I take one list, won't the crowd be there? Nothing will reach. I can't divide first list morning and 2:30 second list. That can't be. Difficult. We'll see, this space constraint, we'll remove it."

The Court also recalled that there was less crowding earlier when it listed fresh matters only on some days of the week. However, the system was changed after requests were made to hear fresh matters on a daily basis.

"All of you started to complain that we want fresh matters every day. (It used to be) one day, I will take 400 fresh matters, finish those 400. Rest of the days, only admission matters, no crowd at all. You need to cooperate as well...(If 75-100 fresh matters have to be listed each day), naturally, (it) goes to the first list. Naturally, others come into the second list. Previous day's leftovers come to the third list. What do you do?" Justice Nagaprasanna asked.

ASG Kamath said that a solution may have to be worked out by following a trial-and-error methodology.

Justice Nagaprasanna assured that he will try to work out a solution in the coming days. He also observed that case management was not an easy task for judges.

"All of us are overworking. I am going home at 9:30 in the night. Then I have to go read the files, the next day's files," he said.